The Cutting Room: The Hallow

August 20, 2015

August 20, 2015

Deep within the darkness of secluded forest land in rural Ireland dwells an ancient evil. Feared by the nearby superstitious villagers as cursed creatures who prey upon the lost, their secrets have been kept from civilization and remain on their hallowed ground. But when a conservationist from London moves in with his wife and infant child in order to survey the land for future construction, his actions unwittingly disturb the horde of demonic forces. Alone in a remote wilderness, he must now ensure his family’s survival from their relentless attacks.

Why we’re looking forward to this: You’d think that developers would have realised by now that digging up ancient burial grounds and sacred places rarely, if ever, ends well, but as fans of horror films we’re happy to watch them make the same mistakes over and over again.

The Hallow doesn’t really promise anything new in terms of story, but given that director Corin Hardy has been entrusted with the upcoming reboot of The Crow, and that the Irish countryside is always a beautiful backdrop to any film, the foundations are there for a solid demonic siege movie.

The film has one major card to play, however, that we’re really quite pleased about, and that’s its use of good old-fashioned animatronics for the hordes of nasties that are inevitably unleashed. It’s rare to see a film that’s not reliant on CGI so we’re up for a trip into the woods based on this fact alone.

The Hallow played to rave reviews at this year’s Sundance festival and will be hitting selected theatres in November.

RICHARD COSGROVE

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